Alan Webb Crashes in Triathlon Debut

Alan Webb crashed in his triathlon debut at the Pan American Championships in Sarasota, Florida last weekend. The mile recorder ended with a fifth-placed finish (and well behind Canada’s Andrew Yorke) in the mixed relay. Webb, 31, retired from the track running last month and is now making a bid for US Olympic team in Rio in 2016.

Webb’s mixed relay team included Lukas Verzbicas who was the fifth high school student to break the four-minute mile in the US. Verzbicas also became junior world triathlon champion in Beijing in 2011 before a near-fatal bike crash in July the following year put his career on hold. Now Webb’s triathlon training partner, Verzbicas  could help the Olympic hopeful make his mark this season. Webb’s team also included Tamara Gorman and Summer Cook.

Webb swam the short format 350 m in 4:58 minutes, road the 6.4 km in 10:14 minutes despite crashing and ran  2 km in 5:50 minutes for a split of 22.06 and an overall team time of 1:29:33. Andrew Yorke  had the fastest relay split of the day in 19:54, taking his team to first place in a combined time of 1:25:56.